Falling for Israeli Joke, Turkish Media ‘Identifies’ Haniyeh’s Assassin

Jerusalem, 1 August, 2024 (TPS) -- Falling for an Israeli joke on social media, several Turkish news sites “identified” the killer of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a Mossad assassin named “Amit Nakesh.”

The name is a play on “the assassin” whose Hebrew word is hamitnakesh.

“When social media posts are shared between countries, the jokes that they contain often get lost in translation,” Sarah Manning, a social media expert in Israel told The Press Service of Israel. “Local jokes and linguistic puns are a good way to spot ‘fake news’ spreading around the world, because they highlight the lack of fact-checking on social media.”

Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday morning in Tehran, where he attended the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The attack is widely attributed to Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

The joke started on Wednesday, apparently in a Hebrew Reddit community. It then spread more widely after being tweeted by Dr. Eli David, an AI expert and social media influencer with over 651,000 followers.

“Breaking: Israeli sources revealed the name of Mossad agent who assassinated Ismail Haniyeh. His name is Amit Nakesh, who according to sources has taken part in several previous assassinations as well,” David tweeted.

“Amit, you are a hero!” David added. The tweet included a photo of Haniyeh stamped “eliminated.”

The joke was retweeted more than 2,100 times, eventually drawing the attention of Turkish media.

“Who Killed Haniyeh? Who is Mossad Agent Amit Nakesh? Who is Amit Nakesh?” screamed a headline in the Akdeniz Gerçek Gazetesi daily.

The daily Uşak Olay reported, “Mossad agent Amit Nakesh is known as a former officer who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Having worked in a secret intelligence unit, Nakesh is alleged to have taken part in high-level Mossad operations. Known for his experience in Israel’s intelligence unit, Nakesh is said to have specialized in particularly sensitive operations.”

It added, “The role of Mossad agent Amit Nakesh in this incident is being closely examined by both national and international security analysts. The details of the assassination and Nakesh’s past duties are critical to understanding the background of the incident.”

Takvim, a prominent Turkish site, reported that the name was a play on words but added, “However, it turned out that Amit Nakesh was shared to manipulate international public opinion.”

The website of the Haber Global news channel published an article headlined, “Israeli sources have announced that the Mossad agent who assassinated Haniyeh is Amit Nakesh,” but subsequently removed it.

“They’re not fact-checking and they are reporting jokes as news, which makes them look unreliable,” Manning said of the Turkish media.

The incident was reminiscent of the death of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.

A joke circulated on Hebrew social networks that the person responsible was a Mossad agent named “Eli Copter,” a play on the Hebrew word for helicopter. The joke morphed into fake news when Hamas’s social media took it seriously was then reported by several Middle Eastern journalists.